# Create an account

Sign up for Instasent with a magic link, complete the onboarding wizard, and issue your first API token — all from the dashboard, no passwords involved.

Instasent signup uses **magic links**: no password to remember, no confirmation code to type. You enter your email, click the link that arrives in your inbox, land in an onboarding wizard, and come out the other side with an organization ready to use.

This page walks the whole flow. If you already have an account, skip straight to [Choose your API](/getting-started/choose-your-api).

## Before you start

- A working email address you can check in the next 24 hours.
- A payment card **only** if you plan to start the 7-day trial. The free tier works without a card — you can always add one later.

## Sign up

#### 1. Go to the access page

Open [dashboard.instasent.com/access](https://dashboard.instasent.com/access) and enter your email. The same endpoint handles both signup and login — if the email is new it becomes an account, if it already exists it signs you in.

#### 2. Check your inbox

Instasent sends a magic link to your email. You will be redirected to a "check your inbox" screen while you wait.

> **Note**: Magic links are valid for **24 hours** from the moment they are issued. If yours expires, just request a new one from the same access page.

#### 3. Click the link

The link takes you to `dashboard.instasent.com/access/verify?code=…` and logs you in automatically. No code to type, no extra confirmation.

#### 4. Complete the account onboarding wizard

First-time users land in `/onboarding`. The wizard asks a few questions about what you want to do with Instasent:

- **Your organization** is created automatically in the background the first time you verify. You do not have to name it or configure anything up front.
- **A first project** is created by the wizard only if your use case is the **CDP / audience management** flow. If you pick an **API-only** use case the wizard skips project creation — you create the project yourself in the next step.

## Create a project

Everything non-trivial on Instasent runs inside a **project**. Projects are the unit of data isolation (their own audiences, senders, tokens, webhooks, billing counters). Pick the type that matches the API you are integrating:

| Project type | Use this for                                                        | Creates                                                          |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Standard** | [Product API](/product-api/guide), [Ingest API](/ingest-api/guide). | Datasources, unified audience, segments, campaigns, automations. |
| **API SMS**  | [Transactional API](/transactional-api/overview) (HTTP or SMPP).    | Senders, SMS tokens, DLR webhooks.                               |

> **Note**: A single organization can host many projects, of either type, side by side. You can spin up more later — splitting by brand, market or environment is the common pattern.

When you **open a project for the first time**, an in-project onboarding wizard walks you through the remaining setup: senders, tokens, webhooks and anything else specific to that project type. You do not configure these at organization level — each project manages its own.

> **Tip**: Everything you need to go live with that project lives behind this wizard. Just click into the project and follow the steps; nothing has to be pre-configured from the main dashboard.

## Billing and free tier

Instasent has two entry-level tiers so you can evaluate without commitment:

- **Free tier** — sign up without a payment card. Comes with its own limits (rate limits, volume caps). Good enough to explore the APIs and run small integrations.
- **7-day trial** — requires a payment card to activate, unlocks the paid-tier limits for seven days. You can start it at any point from the dashboard.

No production traffic is blocked if you are on free; you only hit limits, not hard stops.

## What to read next

- [Choose your API](/getting-started/choose-your-api) - Decision guide: which API to use for which use case.
- [Transactional API — Quickstart](/transactional-api/http/quickstart) - Send your first SMS in under five minutes.
- [Product API — Guide](/product-api/guide) - Organizations, projects, audiences and events — the platform control plane.
- [Ingest API — Quickstart](/ingest-api/quickstart) - Push contacts and events into a project.